University of South Carolina Libraries
Search The following interview is the ninth in a series of 10 articles highlighting prominent schools and departments within USC. Dr. Julian Fincher, Dean of the College of Pharmacy, talks about his school and its advancements. BY BOB BAKER Editor-in-Chief Q. Briefly, what is the function or purpose of the USC College of Pharmacy? A. Of course, our primary purpose is to provide an education for people to practice pharmacy in South Carolina. Second, as a professional school we have an obligation to provide continuing education to not only pharmacists but to other health professions and to just help public education in general on health matters. Our third pur pose is to provide opportunities for faculty to participate in research which in turn advances pharmacy as a profession. Now, by faculty research. I do not think that is all faculty should do. To be a good faculty member, one should first be a good un dergraduate teacher. Then, that member should also be good at something else in the field where he can impart his knowledge and provide something for the college. This combination of undergraduate preparation and research leaves students op portunities to not only get a B.S. degree and prepare oneself for graduate studies, but it also might prepare oneself for 'a special practice such as in a hospital or in industry or in government service (by choosing electives to help prepare him in these areas). Special programs and courses are available for undergraduates to assist faculty with research. Also, just like any other school or department of the University we have independent study available for student work either through faculty assistance or internships. In addition, as part of a required course in phar macy, ever student must go out in the community and give a talk on Histor SPECIAL FEA TUR In preparation for the United i Susan Cate of the Gamecock stal ching USC's history. Below is the articles. This one deals with event BY SUSAN CA1 of The Gamecock "It is doubtful if there is a college as little interest in athletics as we d publication, the Carolinian, in an 4 football team. The fact that all making headway in the sport s; quickly assembling a team of stu4 students. USC's first football team name other than the "College Boys. played against the "Mountain Boys resulted in a disasterous 44-0 loss. But it was a beginning and sooi trainer (at $300 for three months) wi shape as a team that came to be I Cocks" and donned the colors of Clemson College was in the process the same time and soon fiery challen; between the mountains and the midi Were brht tetherek. a the Elm.. For Ac4 some health education topic, such as venereal disease or drug education. Even though the primary thrust of this program is to make kindergarten to grammar. students aware of health-related problems, it gives the pharmacy student needed contact with the public. The pharmacy curriculum itself is divided into two parts, basic knowledge providing mostly theoretical knowledge and applied knowledge providing mostly practical experience. Also, we require our students to participate in clinical clerkships with about 500 hours of actual practice needed before a B.S. degree is given. In addition to the un dergraduate program, we also offer a M.S. program in phar maceutical science. Currently, we have around 18 graduate students in it. Q. Are most of these programs geared to regional or national appeal? A. Our emphasis on research emanates from the faculty members themselves with no real geographic concentration. However, the concentration in the last three years has been in a couple areas--cancer therapy research and psychophar macology. We are also doing some work in the area of drug believability. As far as regional appeal is concerned, our un dergraduate program is ac credited nationally by the American Council on Pharmacy Education. And even though we are a state institution, our graduates are eligible to take the state boards in any state. We use the national exam in lieu of a state exam for the boards and our state's license to practice can be reciprocated with any other state in the U.S. with the exception of only three states. I think we are pretty much on the same target with other schools. In some in stances, our programs are better than others. To give you an example, some schools do not even require clinical clerkships of their students. Another area we excel in here is in our Drug SBehin tates Bicentennial,P if has been resear ninth in a series of Nov. 12, 1 s of the early 1900's. The T illegitima Eeducation taff grant aid within Co in the state that takes cheering. s..." stated a campus The Ga ~ffort to raise a USC Gonzales other colleges were was not a urred Carolina into the team lents as well as non.. wishing p had no coach and no vive longe "Their debut game, campus." "of Furman in 1891, The Gai 1899 and I i the players had a poems anc 1o whipped them into Caroliniar nown as the "Game Althougl garnet and black. regulationi of forming a team at abolish cc ges were being tossed the faculty ands. The two teams dances as A'ood fairgronds a Teaching idemic Dean Julian Fincher and Poison Information Center which operates 24 hours a day. I would have to say that our program here in this is probably better than any other school's in the nation. The information center besides serving as part of our clerkship requirement, allows students to learn about the center and what is available. I think the crux of pharmacy today is that we need a person who can function as a therapeutic drug specialist because these are' the kinds of people who are valuable to all areas of life. And, beside helping the public, this is what our Drug and Poison Info Center is here for. Q. What kind of direction does the College of Pharmacy hope to take in the next five years? A. Two areas we primarily need to work on which were both suggested by -the national ac crediting agency and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy have to do with developing a set of behavioral objectives for the school... What are we expecting our students to do once they get their degree?; -then we must set behavioral objectives for every course dUSC art Nine 896, where Carolina was the victor at 12 rustees were extremely opposed te use of athletics as an advertising mi al institutions." For a while they r to the program, restricted the team lumbia, and contemplated banning to USC baseball was born in this era, also mecock riewspaper, first edited b3 in 1908, adopted its name from the tea very noteable namesake at the time col was on a year-to-year losing streak. 'rofessor remarked, "May the Game r than any chicken I've been able to ke net and Black yearbook was first put he first issues, consisting of sketches I a few photographs are worth a trip to I a Library to have a good laugh over ai enrollment at the University was nea s in the early 1900's did not relax. An mnpulsory church attendance was ign< forbade the students to dance such "ir the "one-step" at the Christmas Ball he theories of Evolution waals isc Exceilej within the College so the student will know just what he is getting out of the course, and what benefits of knowledge the course will make available to him. I think it is reasonable to expect a professor to be able to justify compensation of instruction. Of course, when you go this route, you risk the possibility of turning out highly trained technicians. I do not think this will be so in our case as the student will still need a sound background in the sciences. Our second area of emphasis is that we need to be much nore structured with our continuing education program. Again, we h:.v,ebeen too short on space, faculty, and time to do this; however, we need to guarantee that continuing education students develop the same competency as our newly trained graduates entering the profession. A third area we want to stress is development of graduate and research programs. I want the faculty to be able to participate in doctoral research in one or two ways either establish our own doctoral program in pharmacy, or work with another school or depart ment which will allow them to participate in doctoral research. Of course, if we had an individual doctoral program, we would only be able to offer specialization in pharmacy with major depen dence in other areas to establish background in the sciences for a Ph.D. We hope to offer more specialized electives for our undergraduate students. And, even though we are getting a new building for the College, our approval came from HEW (U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare) with the intention that we would not increase our faculty and students. I would say then we don't want to increase our undergraduate enrollment more than five or ten per cent. However, our graduate programs will probably increase by a factor of three or four. Also, we hope to get a lot of help from faculty on our developing continuing Winthrop College, w blessings of the Le growing wealthy from and far out-doing USC still being forced to b4 hope for much-neede In 1909, the new Pre to USC and seeing traveling around the st and financial support < were almost in vain as Governorship of the sta the many illiterate fa1 against Mitchell ani 6. university, as well as to "the prohibition, child lat ~dium for tendance for children efused to black school teachers. to games Blease continued his )ting and was running for re-ele< . support except- that of Robert weary of political atta< rn--which university. In 1913 he isidering legislative manipulatic A well- Efforts to elevate the cock sur- by an agricultural depr ep on the schools and the First expected to heat and I lished in Under the administr, , stories became mandatory fo: he South men. USC began losing and studenis to the war ring 500, in 1916 fell to 200 by 11 ef fort to men between the ages red and Currell (opposed to th< nmoral" resigned. Would the I of 1913. close its doors in defea )uraged. would be ye. ice education program. Right now, we are turning down about three students for ever one we are getting. We just cannot equip more students without additional space of faculty. The national accrediting agency did point out in their most recent visit that our space shortage was a handicap which needed to be overcome. The new facility will have much more space than at present allowing for a number of dif ferent kinds of things which the student can do. Q. Can you see the College of Pharmacy gaining the national prominence of such schools as California at San Francisco, Purdue, or Ohio State? A. I think for the most part you will find that national reputation is based a lot on the overall status of schools and not specific programs. Very few schools lead in pharmacy research programs in this country. In terms of size, the three you mentioned probably have the largest volume of research. In the South, I think Florida, or maybe Mississippi, is probably first in the highest amount of pharmacy research conducted. For us to achieve prominence, I think we need to continue building our faculty. Our school will never achieve a reputatin of the sort you are talking about unless the faculty is given the opportunity to par ticipate in doctoral research. But, as far as our B.S. degree program alone is concerned, I think ours would stack up favorably next to anyone's. Unfortunately, we do not have any real research giants here. What we need to do to achieve prominence, is to keep bringing in young, eager, and industrious people who are interested in making something of the school. Q. Do you have any personal dreams for the College? A. I just want us to be the best pharmacy school in the nation. We want to excel in all those areas we talked about. In general we just want to be the best. But, everybody wants this. So we are going to work on it - hard. hich seemed to have the financial gislature, and Clemson College, the fertilizer tax, were expanding in academics. The University was !g for renovation money with little I new buildings. sident Samuel C. Mitchell, coming the rundown conditions, began ate "beating the bushes" for moral f the University. Mitchell's efforts Coleman Blease was elected to the ite. Blease, in order to gain votes of emers and textile workers, spoke - I his "expensive, aristocratic" President' Mitchell's support of or laws, compulsory school at and allocations for instruction of attack on the University when he ~tion. Mitchell, who could gain no students and faculty and who was ~ks, accepted a position at another left USC to its backwardness and n. standards were further hindered ession, the slow start of public high World War. Students were still urnish their own rooms. ation of William Currell, R.O.T.C. r all male sophomores and fresh a substantial portion of its faculty The student body of well over 500 18 and after the draft law calling of 18 and 45 to service, President a use of students in the military) niversity once more be forced to t? Some were afraid the anserm